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Out of the woods

Memories of night patrols in Vietnam kept Dave Hanson from walking in the woods behind his house. Today, he goes there to feel calm.

Transcript

I grew up hunting a
lot in Western Minnesota,

and of course you're
always scanning the woods

for movement from anything, Turkey, deer,

skunks, muskrats, whatever.

And that served me well in Vietnam.

We would go out on the night ambush teams

unless the moon was better than half.

You had a very difficult
time in seeing anything,

and the standard operating
procedure was if you heard

movement, you would open
up on that movement.

It was a scary situation.

So the same thing applied.

When I got home,

I couldn't walk in the woods.

I was just intensely alert.

Vietnam was controlling me.

My treatment has been an
absolute return of my life.

I completed the prolonged
exposure program four years ago,

and in the four years to date now,

I have not had one flashback.

I don't have any bad dreams.

I don't wake up at night,
I don't have nightmares,

and I can walk into the woods
without any rise In my anxiety

levels, what I've been able to do is take

what I was so fearful of and,

and turn that into a program
to relieve any anxiety

that I might go through

before Vietnam was controlling me.

Now I was in more control of myself and,

and I could do these things without,

without issues, all of that.

I mean, it is, it is just been
a huge advantage for me and,

and it's been wonderful.

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